


Ember from the Past

by minholly_moon



Category: Red Queen Series - Victoria Aveyard
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 02:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30116106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minholly_moon/pseuds/minholly_moon
Summary: A year after Mare told Cal not to wait for her, she lives a peaceful life in Monfort until a chain of haunting events drives her back to Norta where she reunited with her flaming prince once again. After a terrifying discovery threatens to destroy everything, and a special surprise leaving everyone in shock, how will the little lightning girl and her flame survive?Takes place after War Storm, I do not own the characters and I highly recommend reading the Red Queen series beforehand
Relationships: Diana Farley/Shade Barrow, Mare Barrow/Tiberias "Cal" Calore VII
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	Ember from the Past

**Author's Note:**

> Shade is alive in this story! I couldn't handle it when he was killed off

“MARE LETS GO” Gisa yells at me from downstairs. 

_“Mare c’mon please let me design a dress on you” Gisa asks me, her eyes widening into a soft, pleading stare._

_“_ _No, use one of your various mannequins scattered all around the shop” I grumbled back, turning away from Gisa._

_“Please Mare, I barely get to spend time with you as it is. You're always either training or locked in your room” Gisa begs._

_Guilt forming in my chest, I reluctantly agree to Gisa’s request._

_“Yay, be ready by 9 tomorrow so we can head over” Gisa exclaims, clapping her hands excitedly and already heading off to her shop to design who knows what. Damn, I’m going to regret this later._

“Coming Gee” I yell back, dressing into a pair of boots, leggings, and plain black t-shirt grabbing my favorite purple leather jacket and tossing it over my shoulders as I leave the house. 

Life after the war has been peaceful, certainly the break I was long due for. I had moved with my family to Monfort where Gisa was able to live her dream and open her own streemstress shop. My parents were happier than ever, my dad having gotten his leg back after Sara had restored it, and my mom had the home of her dreams where she endlessly cooked meals and experienced the luxuries Stilt life never provided. As for Shade, he and Farely also moved to Monfort after the war where they safely lived as a family raising Clara, Farely still working with the Guard to rebuild Norta. 

No more war, no deaths, _he_ is 6 feet under the ground, and I am given an opportunity at a normal, simple life I always craved for. It seemed as though all my problems were resolved and I was able to take a breath. Though it was foolish of me to believe someone as broken as me could ever have a chance at normal. At night my mind is plagued by those ice blue eyes as _he_ comes closer to me and whispers into my ear, “I told you I would save you” as he takes out a knife and plunges it into me, instantly jolting me awake and finding my hands clawing my stomach. Unable to go back to sleep, I spend the rest of the night in pain at the uncontrollable recollection of memories. 

**…**

“Gisa if you poke me one more time with your needle I’m leaving” I retort as she weaves her needle and thread around the cloth close to me, pinning down areas to later sew. 

Gisa stops working and turns towards me, “If you would stop moving so much, this wouldn’t happen” she tells me while she directs her attention to the dress once again and continues working.

“I don’t even need a dress Gee, it’s not like I have places to attend”.

“You don’t always need an occasion for a new dress” she comments

After a couple more minutes of endless pinning and sewing, Gisa tells me she’s done. Using this chance, I take the dress off and put on the comfortable feeling of my leather jacket.

As I’m about to leave the shop, I turn around to hear Gisa calling me. 

“You need to loosen up Mare, you never know when you will meet someone” she winks.

“You're one to talk. You spend all your time in the shop then you do talking with someone” I fire back, turning back around after seeing Gisa’s pale face slowly turning a crimson red. 

For the past months, Gisa has been trying to set me up with anyone and go on a date. But everywhere I look, my broken heart refuses to interact with any person I meet, my heart always coming back to the flaming prince I left. _No_ , I tell myself. I didn’t leave him, I took the necessary time away from everything to collect myself, there’s a difference. I shouldn’t be thinking about him, he probably has already moved on, it’s been a year since I told him not to wait for me. It would be stupid of me to think otherwise. 

**…**

As I make my way over to the training arena where I’m meeting with Rafe and Ella, I begin to pick up on the light sound of footsteps trailing behind me. Everytime I stop walking, the sound of footsteps stops and resumes when I continue. Hastily I turn around, ready to strike down whoever is behind. To my surprise my eyes landed on a small, brown haired little boy around 7 years old who was now still and had a terrified expression on his face. 

After seeing it was only a little boy, my stance relaxed and I walked closer to him about to ask what he was doing. But as I got closer, the little boy snapped out of his trance and before I could say a word, he turned around and quickly ran away. That was odd I muttered to myself as I headed over to train. 

**…**

“Your late Barrow” I hear when I arrive at the arena where Rafe and Ella are. 

“Ran into someone on the way over” I answered back, heading over to an area of the arena where I took my jacket off.

“Has the little lightning girl finally found herself someone?” Ella teases

Rolling my eyes I respond, “Sure, if you consider a seven year old my type”

“Well you do have a thing for blowtorch” Rafe joins in, grinning

“Very funny”, I glared at them while quickly shooting a small bolt of electricity towards Ella and Rafe who weren’t quick enough to dodge.

“You're gonna regret that Barrow” Ella and Rafe say at the same time, causing me to burst out in laughter. 

**…**

I first sparred against Rafe in hand to hand combat, who had made the first move when he went to strike my face, which I quickly dodged, successfully blocking the rest of his attempts. Managing to grab his wrist, I sharply twisted it against him and used my free hand to clip his nose, successfully hearing the crack of bone. Using my chance, I quickly moved to his other side where I swiped Rafe’s legs out from under him, causing him to fall. About to grab his head in a choke hold, his arm snakes around my ankle, throwing me backwards. Rafe uses his opportunity to then land a kick to the side of my stomach, feeling a few ribs crack causing me to double over and barely miss his next blow. At the end of our fight, Rafe and I are breathing heavily. I had several cuts and bruises forming all across my body, clutching my side while Rafe had a limp in his right leg and was wincing from his broken nose that was excessively bleeding with half his face being swollen, several nasty bruises already showing. 

Exhausted and in pain, I got treated by a healer on standby before seeing Ella and practicing my electricity next. Her and I each created our own lightning storms first and sent bolts at moving practice targets in front of us. The entire room lit up in sparks of purple and blue lightning from our power. However, Ella managed to take them down faster than I was, her aim being more precise than mine. Afterwards, Ella was teaching me a new trick she learned.

“Close your eyes and first spread electricity all over your body” Ella instructs

Closing my eyes, I gathered my electricity and had it travel across my body.

“Now focus and transform the electricity into a shield” she adds

Taking a deep breath, I focused my electricity and successfully turned it into a shield in front of me, but the power drained my energy, leaving me catching my breath after a while. 

I turned and saw Rafe sitting on the side smirking at my struggle and I flip him off in return, earning a chuckle from Ella.

“You're getting stronger Barrow” Ella says, handing me a towel. 

“Not nearly as strong as I am” Rafe interrupts, walking towards us.

“Hell no, don’t let your ego get to you” I fire back, seeing Ella place a hand on Rafe’s shoulder and telling him, “She’s right, in a spar with lightning you're screwed. Mare’s power has been growing stronger each time, she’s _almost_ as good as I am”. I grin at Ella’s response seeing Rafe’s annoyed face. 

“Whatever” he replies, rolling his eyes and walking away. Leaving Ella and I holding our stomachs with laughter. 

I head over to pick up my jacket and pull it over, quickly saying bye to Ella as I leave. 

**…**

On my way home, I stopped by a bar. Painful memories flooding my thoughts. Looking around I saw groups of people lost in their thoughts, their choice of alcohol sitting in front of them to drown out their problems. To my left I spot a kid passing by a group of passed out, drunk men, carefully driving their hand into every pocket. I immediately walk over to give the kid a couple coins before the guys wake up to being robbed, but then the kid turns around and I’m surprised to see it’s the same little boy as earlier. 

I gently grab his arm and pull him out of the bar. Once we were outside and away from the bar, I sternly asked the little boy “What were you doing in there?”. To my shock, the little boy fiercely grabs my wrists, panic flooding my chest as his eyes terrifyingly turn into the same dark, ice blue color that haunts me everyday. 

“I told you I would save you”.


End file.
